Back in the USofA

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

We spent a couple of days in Lima without an incident and even visited a Russian speaking doctor that was recommended to us in Miami on the day before we left the US regarding a small pre-trip medical problem and a more recent one. Tests have shown that everything is fine, so after a few days of shopping for presents we boarded the plane back to Miami.
( Captain America )

Tags: extreme, flying, health, people
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Lima revisited

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

Huacachina was awesome! If time permitted, we would have stayed there another week practicing our sand-boarding skills and drinking Tacama Sangria. However, Lima was only four hours away, and a not to be misseed flight from there to Florida for Tamaras, Shurik’s mom sixty fifth birthday on 21st of January.
( Scary Stories )

Tags: extreme, people
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Oh Huacachina, how will I miss thee

Sunday, January 15th, 2006

Located half an hour from Ica, Huacachina is a tiny oasis town set deep among the sandy dunes of the Peruvian desert. A few hostels, a few restaurants and artisan shops, all surrounding a beautiful lagoon on the shores of which the local children swim and slide on boards from the nearby dunes. “Tranquilo” they call such places. Tranquil and quiet this place is a real getaway, ten times better then what they try to depict in those vacation retreat commercials.

Tags: extreme, food, people
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Drawings for the gods

Saturday, January 14th, 2006

Nazca probably would be completely unknown if not only for the famous gigantic drawings, known to us as the Nazca Lines. Created thousands of years ago by the Nazca people, many wonder what is the purpose of these lines, but one thing is certain — the only way to really appreciate these drawings is to take a ride in a small, six seater plane and fly above them banking almost 90% for a better view.
( Pictures )

Tags: art, flying
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Operation Condor

Friday, January 13th, 2006

Not having found anything else of interest in Arequipa itself, we moved on to plan number two. Colca Canyon, one of the most famous Peruvian wonders,is located not four hours away from Arequipa. Described as being twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and easy enough to hike through without a guide, we could not resist. We caught a 2am bus hoping to get there in time to catch a glimpse of the condors which are promised to be flying above the canyon in the early hours of the morning.

( more… )

Tags: kids, trekking
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Santa Catalina

Thursday, January 12th, 2006

The trip to Arequipa (Peru) took us about 24 hours, just a tad longer than our non-stop twenty-two hour bus ride from Lima to Cuzco. This time we spent less time in the bus, but with border crossing and three bus changes we got to Arequipa quite late the next evening. Personally, I was really looking forward to Arequipa. Many people we met on the road raved how beautiful it is, and how many cool things you can do here. Alas, I have to say we found Arequipa to be somewhat boring. No matter how hard we looked, we could not find any interesting markets, and the excursions from the local travel agencies did not look like anything we couldn’t do by ourselves. We strolled the streets for a while and eventually ended up spending most of our time in Monasterio de Santa Catalina which is said to be the finest example of Arequipa’s colonial architecture. The Monastery was indeed impressive in its size and structure. Inside, besides the usual tiny courtyards surrounded by religious art, were actual streets, nun’s quarters, and all they might need to live their quiet lives, like kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry facilities, all accessible without leaving the walls of the convent.

Tags: architecture
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Red Hot Chile

Tuesday, January 10th, 2006

One advice I have for you, if you really want to enjoy Chile on a budget, avoid entering it from Bolivia. Don’t get me wrong, San Pedro de Atacama is a beautiful little border town with plenty of sights and attractions, but it is just way too damn expensive. Three days ago we were paying $5 for a double room in Bolivia, and now in San Pedro we were asked for $40! We knew that Chile was going to be more expensive, but there is no way we would pay that much, so we bought a bus tickets all the way straight back to Peru, stored our bags with the bus company, and spent the day exploring the town, trying really hard not to buy anything but food.

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See salt sea

Tuesday, January 10th, 2006

Once again we reach a site where the pictures are worth a thousand words. Well correction, we’ve reached about ten such sites over the next three days. To tell you the truth, I would have preferred to do this whole drive on my own, without a guide, if only the book didn’t say that to do that I would need a car, a GPS, and a loose screw in the head. Honestly, this trip did not require a guide, just a driver, and that is exactly what we got from the tour company we chose.

( 1,000 pictures )

Tags: art
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Strangers in the night

Saturday, January 7th, 2006

Potosí, as nice as it was, had nothing more in store for us, and so we hopped on the six o’clock bus going straight to Uyuni where we could catch a three day excursion on a 4×4 going through the Salar Planes down to Chile.
( more… )

Tags: people
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Getting down and dirty

Friday, January 6th, 2006

We came back to La Paz completely exhausted and famished, checked into a hostel with a good shower and decided to give our aching muscles and lungs a little rest. We slept all day and it worked like a charm. By the end of the 5th we were ready to move on and caught a night bus to Potosí — the highest city in the world at 4,090m — where we planned to visit its famous silver mines and get dirty climbing inside narrow shafts.
( more… )

Tags: market, mines, people
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